Sliced Ham, Our Answer to the Deli Counter

The first product I'd like to highlight is our sliced ham.

My brother and I grew up pining over the cold cuts in the deli aisle at our local supermarket. And while I can't remember exactly the words my mom said, it was clear she wasn't excited for us to eat too much of that "processed food."

Reber Rock Farm no nitrate sliced ham is our answer: you can have a delicious ham sandwich and feel good about what you put in your mouth.

If you want to know what's in it, it's simple. We take the whole ham and remove the bone in the middle. The ham is tumbled with a mix of salt and sugar for flavor. Then it is smoked, which in turn cooks the ham. Then we slice it thinly, package it, and it's ready to eat. Nothing more, nothing less.

No nitrates means no nitrates at all. Neither synthetic nitrates nor naturally occurring ones, which you will often find hidden in ingredients like celery powder, celery juice extract, or celery salt.

Sliced ham is one of our favorite sandwiches to make for an on the go meal. Unlike sliced ham you might get at the deli counter, you can see the different muscles that make up the ham. Oftentimes I'll break the whole round piece into the two parts that separate easily, then fold them and make my sandwich with those.

How to make a ham sandwich is as varied an activity as anything else in our house. Lovett prefers just ham and mayonnaise, or even just a rolled piece of ham in her lunch box. 

Can you guess which lunch is hers in the picture above?

Lewis packs his sandwich full with tomatoes, garden vegetables, mayonnaise, mustard, and the works. I like throwing on some sort of pickled vegetable, like sauerkraut, kimchi, or a relish.

What goes in your ham sandwich?

As a parent always searching for good ingredients, I'd like to give a shout out to our new favorite bread. Since our local favorite bakery stopped making bread, we've tried to find a good organic sandwich bread at the supermarket, and we've fallen in love with White Bread Done Right by Dave's Killer Bread. It's a nice soft loaf, and from a parent's perspective it's clever branding: the bread feels like white bread, soft and easy to chew, but the ingredients are actually organic whole grains, which I feel good about feeding our kids.

Happy August.